Tag Archives: equifax

What happened? From May to July 2017, hackers breached data security at Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus. The hackers got names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers. They also credit card numbers of 209,000 consumers and dispute documents with personal identifying information of 182,000 consumers. Equifax estimates this data breach affects 143,000,000 American consumers – over 40% of American adults. Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, estimates 12 million Texans are affected. Equifax learned about the breach on July 29 and failed to disclose the breach publicly until September 7.

Was my information stolen? Equifax has set up a website for consumers to find out if they are affected. Visit: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ and click the maroon box. You’ll be taken to a form where you type in your last name and the last 6 digits of your Social Security number. You’ll also have to answer a question to prove you are a human and not a robot. The site will tell you simply whether or not Equifax believes your information was impacted and will allow you to sign up for a year of free credit monitoring.

What is being done to help victims? Not a lot. Equifax is offering victims one year of free credit monitoring through its TrustedID service. The service includes one year of identity theft insurance. So far, 30 class action lawsuits have been filed against Equifax as a result of the breach; a couple are in Texas. The Senate Finance Committee is asking questions of Equifax, and that could lead to a Congressional investigation. The Federal Trade Commission has put up an information website: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do.

What should I do? Here’s a checklist:

It is safest to assume you are affected.

Place a 90 day fraud alert on your credit report by calling 1-888-766-0008.

Consider placing a credit freeze. A credit freeze is more effective than a fraud alert, but unless you have made a police report, you must pay a nominal fee to each credit bureau to freeze your credit, and to use your credit you must unfreeze your reports. To place a credit freeze, you must contact each credit bureau separately at the links or phone numbers listed below:

Visit annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report from Transunion or Experian. Look through the report carefully. If there is any information on it that does not belong to you, dispute it immediately. Check again with the other company in November.

Carefully check all of your bank statements and credit card statements from May forward. If you find transactions that you did not authorize, report them. Note that the financial institution is not required to investigate the items you report from May, June, or July.

Make plans to review all of your statements each month and immediately dispute any transactions that you did not authorize.

Be alert to scammers trying to profit off your misery. If you did not initiate a phone call, email, or text message, treat it like a scam!

Plan to file your federal income tax return as early as possible – before identity thieves do it.